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Surgery waiting times to double

Julia Medew

Some hospitals may also be set to lose organ transplant services to other hospitals so the state can cut costs and streamline the system. Photo: Glenn Hunt

ELECTIVE surgery waiting lists are likely to ''explode'' due to funding cuts at Victorian hospitals and no patient will be spared longer waits, including children and cancer patients, surgeons warn.

Some hospitals may also be set to lose organ transplant services to other hospitals so the state can cut costs and streamline the system.

The shake-up in coming months is likely to be controversial for specialists who pride themselves on working in centres of excellence, but it is unlikely to reduce the number of transplants being done.

The chair of the Victorian regional committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Dr Robert Stunden, said although every health network would deal with budget cuts differently, previous experience showed the first thing to go was elective surgery.

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The paediatric surgeon at several Melbourne public hospitals said semi-urgent or category two elective surgery lists could be cut in half over the next six months, meaning people who should be operated on within three months could expect their wait to at least double to six months.

Category two patients are defined as those with ''some pain, dysfunction and disability'' and include people waiting for hip or knee replacements and vascular surgery.

Dr Stunden said that although urgent surgery was likely to still be done on time, no surgical specialty, including cancer and paediatric care, would be immune from cuts, meaning many patients could expect to wait longer in pain.

''We are expecting to have major cutbacks in lists over the next six months … waiting lists will explode,'' he said, adding that it was ''terrible'' for patients. ''The quicker we can manage these patients, the better it is for them.''

Dr Stunden said some hospitals were considering delaying new programs in the new year while others were discussing the streamlining of ''super-specialised services'' such as transplant surgery, so instead of three hospitals doing liver transplants, for example, only one would. This would cut the cost of having three hospitals set up for the procedure.

While this would upset some doctors in the field, Dr Stunden said it did not mean the number of procedures would be cut back.

''There will have to be some give and take in the major institutions for the benefit of the community as a whole,'' he said.

Most transplants are currently done at Monash Medical Centre and the Alfred, Austin and Royal Melbourne hospitals.

Victorian Health Minister David Davis last week told hospitals to plan for multimillion-dollar budget cuts over the next seven months. He blamed the federal government for refusing to back down on plans to slash $106.7 million from Victorian hospital budgets this financial year.

Mr Davis said the federal government's recalculations of its funding were based on flawed population data. However, the federal government disputes this and says funding to the state is still increasing compared to last year.

On Tuesday, the Australian Medical Association and the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine condemned the budget cuts, saying public hospitals were already overwhelmed.

''The cuts must stop - the public hospital system has nothing more to give,'' said AMA president Steve Hambleton.

Elective surgery waiting lists have increased in Victoria over the past two years. At the end of June, 46,131 people were waiting for surgery - up from 37,194 in June 2010.

14 comments so far

Just imagine how many elective surgery procedures could have been performed with the money wasted on Myki, Desal plant etc etc?, Bracks, Brumby and Co certainly have a lot to answer for!!

Commenter

john

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 6:45AM

ah, but think of the new tunnels than can be dug now!

Commenter

roadrunner

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 8:39AM

Just imagine if we had a competent State government that allocated it's resources toward education and health rather than cutting these two necessities. The next state election can't come quick enough and statistically, most Victorians agree.

Commenter

JIM

Location

Bayside

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 11:07AM

Maybe they would have had the resources if all that money had not been wasted on the projects mentioned previously.Look how long it took to get the State out of the mess that Kirner and Cain left. we even had to sell our Sate Bank; we certainly could do with it now, had we still had it it would be generating profit for the State, and I am pretty sure they would be passing on all of the interest rate cuts

Commenter

john

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 11:44AM

Mr Davis. Your blaming the federal government for your incompetence in handling the health portfolio is like doctors of decades past attacking you for being a chiropractor and costing them patients. Look in the mnirror before you lay blame at the feet of others.

Commenter

A T Kenos

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 8:50AM

It does help that the Fed's have pulled 100 million out of the budget so they hit their surplus...Great, you would expect that from the LIBS, but Labor? Really? Yep, its the state government...why don't you tip in the 100 million? Or contact Comrade Swan, go on.....

Commenter

shemp

Location

melb

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 9:20AM

Um, you realise how Budgets work right? In May Budgets are announced and then hospitals determine their service loads for the financial year based on that. They then enter commercial agreements with providers/employees/etc for those services. Do you understand that basic premise at all?

Now, here is the situation: the Feds pulled out $40 million retrospectively (the other $67m is in the next financial year so not as bad, hospitals can plan/budget for that) How do they budget for money they alread spent? - do you get that? Money already committed and spent - surgeries already done. Now there is only 6 months of the financial year left to get the full year effect of $40 million - which is equivalent to an $80million cut. Even worse, hospitals would have entered commerical arrangements/contracts based on their budgets. So how they find teh $80million is going to be near impossible.

Why don't you look at your ALP state members who, instead of defending Victoria, defended the party. For them it was ALP first, Vic last.

Commenter

narc

Location

Melb

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 10:47AM

This would have to be the most poorly managed country in the first world and of course it longs to be like America the land of extreme poverty, inequity and selfishness. The Diggers of old did not fight for a country like this..... Australians deserve first class state of the art healthcare paid for by its rich natural resources... just like those who live in the UAE..... why do we settle for scraps?

Commenter

Jeff

Location

Brunswick

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 8:56AM

You will find the UAE owns its mineral resources. Ours are in mostly the hands of foreign companies. That's where most of the mining boom profits have gone. Overseas. You cant compare us to the UAE as a result.

Commenter

w ch

Date and time

December 05, 2012, 10:41AM

This State / Federal war that is going on and the blame game, plus the need to have a surplus will be responsible for many , many medical conditions deteriorating to a point where a major operation rather than a straight forward surgical procedure is required. Meantime the government fiddles while people suffer. What a lack of care and compassion they are showing their constituents. Shame on you, I'm just sorry politics has come to this low level.